It is well known in motor vehicles to employ a passive seat belt system in which the inboard end of the belt is mounted inboard the seat and the outboard end of the belt is mounted on the door. A retractor is associated with at least one end of the belt and permits the belt to be unwound when the door is opened and retracts the belt to a restraining position about the occupant when the door is closed.
It has been recognized in the prior art that it would be desirable to provide a mechanism for lifting the lap belt upwardly and forwardly away from the occupant when the door is opened to facilitate occupant ingress and egress from the passive restraint system.
To that end prior art patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,317, to Weman entitled "Safety Belt for Motor Vehicles" have proposed power operated telescoping mechanisms which would lift the belt relative to the seated occupant.
The present invention provides a new and improved seat belt lifter in which a telescoping mechanism is extended automatically by the passage of belt therethrough during belt unwinding to eliminate the need for a powered operating mechanism for extending the telescoping mechanism.